mn_technology:google191533215Google200781Wed, 21 Feb 2018 20:30:37 PSTTue, 4 Mar 2008 13:43:35 PSTFri, 27 Sep 2013 15:57:04 PDT150GenericNews/news/npc-news.mercurynews.com4746980The Mercury News568http://www.mercurynews.comwww.mercurynews.comfeeds.mercurynews.com30321581SJM-TECHDESIGN-0904.xmltrue:whatsnew: :biz:bizstaff:apple:Facebook:Google:svsocial:sv2020news:whatsnew:bizbreaking:By Queenie Wong, qwong@bayareanewsgroup.comFri, 2 Sep 2016 11:56:15 PDTFri, 2 Sep 2016 11:56:17 PDTWed, 2 Sep 2026 11:56:14 PDTFri, 2 Sep 2016 11:56:17 PDTTue, 6 Sep 2016 05:22:30 PDTTue, 6 Sep 2016 05:20:49 PDT3114falseBy Queenie Wong&#44; qwong&#64;bayareanewsgroup&#46;com2016-09-02T11:56:15-07:0020160906T052230-07002016-09-02T11:58:08-07:0020160906T052049-07002016090209/02/20162026-09-02T11:56:14-07:0098YSilicon Valley architecture: Apple, Google, Facebook lead the wayIn a place known for out-of-the-box thinking and risk taking, some tech firms are no longer playing it safe when it comes to their work spaces. In a place known for out-of-the-box thinking and risk taking, some tech firms are no longer playing it safe when it comes to their work spaces. <p>Nvidia's new triangular-shaped headquarters, inspired by the company's work in computer graphics, is a rare sight in the sea of rectangular office parks scattered throughout the Bay Area.</p><p>"It's easy to look at the building right now and think it's an object, but we're really designing an experience," said Hao Ko, principal design director at Gensler, the architecture firm working on Nvidia's headquarters. "We're not designing our father's office."</p><p>In a place known for out-of-the-box thinking and risk taking, tech firms have historically played it safe when it comes to their work spaces, opting for functional garages and tilt-up buildings over futuristic architecture that mirrors the innovation happening inside.</p><p>Not anymore. Apple hired prominent British architect Norman Foster to design a spaceshiplike headquarters that features the world's largest piece of curved glass. Google proposed building a translucent canopy with interior structures that can be rearranged like furniture, challenging the idea of immovable concrete buildings. A more recent plan shows a design that is more tent-like instead of a massive dome. </p><p>And Facebook, which tapped Frank Gehry to design an office building with a 9-acre green roof, hired the world renowned architect again for two more office buildings.</p><p>"For years, people came to Silicon Valley and asked where's the architecture? All these high tech companies and you tell me that's the building they're working in," said David Regester, president of the American Institute of Architects' Santa Clara Valley chapter. "It's been paradoxical to a lot of people. Now that's changing."</p><p>The movement away from renting space in banal tilt-up buildings partly reflects a fast-paced tech industry that has evolved from manufacturing computer chips to writing code for computer software, Regester and other architects in the area say. Now tech firms are not only looking for utilitarian spaces but environments that reflect their workplace culture and foster creativity and better teamwork. </p><p>Some experts say Silicon Valley's tech construction boom is also part of a pattern that has happened throughout history in areas infused with wealth.</p><p>"This is what rich people do. They build palaces for themselves," said Louise Mozingo, professor and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley. </p><p>Companies such as Google and Apple are using their headquarters to project their image throughout the world, and as the competition to attract the best and brightest workers intensifies, they're all stepping up their games when it comes to building the most innovative office space. </p><p>In 2011, late Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs presented to the Cupertino City Council the architectural design of Apple Campus 2, a four-story building with 2.8 million square feet of office space that will house 12,000 employees. "I think we do have a shot at building the best office building in the world," Jobs told the city.</p><p>About 80 percent of the campus is made up of green space, a nod to Silicon Valley's agricultural roots. Employees are expected to move in next year.</p><p>Foster, the architect who got a call from Jobs about designing a new campus in 2009, has said publicly that the building didn't start out as circular, but grew into that shape. It's similar to a quad on Stanford University's campus or London Square where houses are surrounded by a park. </p><p>Jobs' presentation to the City Council was also his last public appearance before his death, and Apple Campus 2, estimated to cost about $5 billion, became wrapped up in the legacy the tech titan left behind. </p><p>"It changed the game. It's a sheer question of one-upmanship. How are you going to keep competing with that image, and how does your image measure up?" Mozingo said.</p><p>Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang also played a role in shaping the design of its new Santa Clara headquarters, which is under construction and expected to open in 2017. </p><p>"(Jen-Hsun) wanted this building to really speak to the soul of Nvidia," said John O'Brien, Nvidia's director of real estate. The polygon shape, a basic building block in computer graphics, showcases Nvidia's business in visual computing.</p><p>Atop a hilly light gray roof, sunshine radiates through triangular skylights, brushing the hard hats and backs of construction workers up high. The shape repeats itself throughout the building from the ceiling to the shadows dancing inside. </p><p>Pointing to an MIT study that shows collaboration drops if employees are located on different floors, O'Brien said they wanted to put as many employees on the same level as possible. Surrounded by greenery, the $380 million building is two stories, spans 500,000 square feet and will house about 2,500 employees. </p><p>Gensler architects have also been using Nvidia's Iray technology to render photorealistic images of the headquarters, allowing them to see in virtual reality how light filters through the building, get a sense of how the space and materials feel, and see the progression of the construction from the view of a drone.</p><p>"The building we're doing for Nvidia is really a big thesis of how we can enhance the collaboration that happens in a building," Ko said.</p><p>Other tech firms and even real estate developers have been asking themselves the same question. </p><p>Facebook, which often says its work is 1 percent finished, has tried to maintain an informal culture with a Frank Gehry-designed space that includes steel girders and wires dangling from the ceiling.</p><p>"The building itself is pretty simple and isn't fancy. That's on purpose. We want our space to feel like a work in progress. When you enter our buildings, we want you to feel how much left there is to be done in our mission to connect the world," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a 2015 social media post about the space. </p><p>Planning to add two more office buildings in Menlo Park, the company has maintained it isn't looking to make big architectural statements, purposefully trying to incorporate the landscape around the site. Still, bolder and more diverse design elements are part of the proposed campus expansion, including a yellow bicycle and pedestrian bridge that zigs and zags.</p><p>Even buildings planned as rentals are making bolder architectural statements.</p><p>In San Francisco, Salesforce leased more than half of a 61-story skyscraper owned by real estate developer Hines and Boston Properties. Designed by well-known Argentine-American architect César Pelli, the Salesforce Tower will be the tallest building in the city, marking what's being called the center of the new economy.</p><p>Architecture firm HOK designed Central Wolfe, an office space that is being leased by Apple in Sunnyvale. The campus, which real estate developer Landbank Investments sold to Jay Paul Co., didn't have a tenant when it was first designed but featured an unusual cloverleaf-shape that was inspired by the redwood forests and oak trees in the Bay Area.</p><p>The building includes elements that attract tech companies: large floor plates to fit as many workers on the same floor, hidden parking, greenery and the use of more natural light and renewable energy in the building.</p><p>"It's really growing out of the expectations from the technology clients that the building needs to be smarter, more beautiful and more effective," said Paul Woolford, design principal for HOK's San Francisco office. "Those things together are creating frankly more exciting and creative designs than we've seen in the past." </p><p>Contact Queenie Wong at 408-920-2706. Follow her at <a href="http://Twitter.com/QwongSJ" >Twitter.com/QwongSJ</a>.</p><a href="http://Twitter.com/QwongSJ">Twitter.com/QwongSJ</a>

Karl Mondon&#47;Bay Area News Group49315491http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0902/20160902__techdesign~7.JPG64541014440449315494http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0902/20160902__techdesign~7_100.JPG10064881949315495http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0902/20160902__techdesign~7_200.JPG2001271357949315496http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0902/20160902__techdesign~7_300.JPG3001912108249315497http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0902/20160902__techdesign~7_400.JPG4002543052649315498http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0902/20160902__techdesign~7_500.JPG500318418643/businesssilicon-valley-architecture-apple-google-facebook-lead-waytrue568Silicon Valley architecture: Apple, Google, Facebook lead the way9http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_30321581/silicon-valley-architecture-apple-google-facebook-lead-wayBusinessheader30319997freeform<div class="ndn_embed" data-config-widget-id="1" style="width:600px;height:338px" data-config-type="VideoPlayer/Single" data-config-tracking-group="90757" data-config-playlist-id="18873" data-config-video-id="31347302" data-config-site-section="mercurynews590_tec_non_sec"> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push(['embed']);</script>position230321503imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0902/20160902__techdesign~8.JPG
Jack Dahlgren, Nvidia's project manager, walks among the new building's 246 triangular skylights in Santa Clara, Calif., Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group.)
Karl Mondonposition430321504imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0902/20160902__techdesign~9.JPGNvidia's new building in Santa Clara, Calif., continues taking shape, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016.
Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Groupfooter30321502imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0902/20160902__techdesign~7.JPGNvidia's new building in Santa Clara, Calif., continues taking shape, Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2016. Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group30325315SJM-GOOGLEFOES-0904.xmltrue:biz:bizstaff:google:oracle:sv2020news:whatsnew:bizbreaking:By Ethan Baron, ebaron@bayareanewsgroup.comSat, 3 Sep 2016 14:09:51 PDTSat, 3 Sep 2016 14:09:53 PDTThu, 3 Sep 2026 14:09:49 PDTSat, 3 Sep 2016 14:09:53 PDTSat, 3 Sep 2016 14:12:25 PDTSat, 3 Sep 2016 14:11:05 PDT3115falseBy Ethan Baron&#44; ebaron&#64;bayareanewsgroup&#46;com2016-09-03T14:09:51-07:0020160903T141225-07002016-09-03T14:12:25-07:0020160903T141105-07002016090309/03/20162026-09-03T14:09:49-07:0032YSecretive foe attacks Google over government influenceMysterious 'transparency project' lashes tech titanMysterious 'transparency project' lashes tech titan<p>MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Google's enemies are legion. It has fought bitter court battles against Apple, Microsoft, Oracle and PayPal.</p><p>It has faced a well-financed campaign by Oracle, TripAdvisor, Expedia, Nokia and others against its European operations, plus a similar action driven by Yelp. It's been targeted in a lawsuit by AT&T over access to utility poles for Google Fiber.</p><p>Now, in what appears to be a new tactic on the technology industry battleground, Google has come under attack by a mysterious group that keeps mum about its sponsors while issuing scathing reports about the Mountain View search giant's influence on government. Among its recent revelations: High-ranking Google execs have had more than 20 "intimate" meetings with President Barack Obama, and the company has a revolving-door employment relationship with the federal government.</p><p>While the backers of the "Google Transparency Project" may be hidden, its purpose is clear, observers say: To offer purportedly objective research and commentary that can be used to thwart Google's burgeoning power in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere, much as similar "think tanks" have sought to undermine the environmental lobby or promote development projects.</p><p>"When you're successful, you're on top of the hill. You become a target," said Michael Cusumano, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management who studies the technology industry. </p><p>Google, with a market capitalization of $529 billion, is a Goliath among Bay Area tech giants. It is known for disrupting industries around the world, from travel to media to transportation, making it enemy No. 1 for many competitors and leaving a trail of lawsuits in its wake. Oracle is still fighting to renew a failed $9 billion lawsuit accusing Google of stealing Oracle code to cash in on the Android mobile operating system.</p><p>Google and the Transparency Project both declined to comment.</p><p>So far, only Redwood Shores-based Oracle has admitted to funding the Transparency Project, telling Fortune it wanted the public to know about its support for the initiative. Oracle declined to comment to this newspaper. Other companies that have tangled with Google have denied involvement with the project, including AT&T, Yelp and Microsoft. </p><p>"This is an attempt to influence policy, essentially, to restrict the behavior of your competitor who you feel is either monopolistic or competing unfairly," Cusumano said.</p><p>American companies have long assailed competitors by sponsoring damaging research, but the Transparency Project's approach -- highly public attacks combined with profound secrecy about its backers -- is a new tactic in Silicon Valley tech, said Steve Blank, a lecturer at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business and prominent Silicon Valley observer.</p><p>"This is just a symptom of a much bigger game. What you want to do if you're a corporation is you want to influence policy for your interest," Blank said. "We're just like any other industry now. This is what this game has gotten down to in Silicon Valley because the stakes are big enough." </p><p>Just as there's nothing illegal about the activities that have put Google in the cross hairs of the Transparency Project -- lobbying, sponsoring research, and building close ties with U.S. officials -- the project's secrecy-shrouded attack-dog work also appears not to cross any legal lines.</p><p>"I don't see any of this as nefarious," said former U.S. Department of Justice chief economist Daniel Rubinfeld, an emeritus professor at the UC Berkeley School of Law. "It's changing times. Companies are battling each other on many more fronts than they used to."</p><p>The Transparency Project commenced hostilities against Google in April, gaining national media attention with a report tracking the number of Googlers taking jobs in the White House and federal agencies, and the number of federal officials traveling in the other direction, into Google. Project researchers reported 113 "revolving door" moves between Google -- plus itsassociated companies, law firms and lobbyists -- and the White House and federal agencies.</p><p>"Over the past decade, Google has transformed itself from the dominant internet search engine into a global business empire that touches on almost every facet of people's lives -- often without their knowledge or consent," the group's first report said. "It scans the content of people's emails, tracks their activities online and their movements in the real world. It analyzes their search queries and behavior in ways many find troubling. At the same time, the company has assiduously courted Washington."</p><p>Another report, based on White House guest logs, cites 427 visits by employees of Google and "associated entities" to the White House since January 2009, with 21 "small, intimate" meetings between senior Google executives and Obama. </p><p>"Google executives have had extraordinary access to the White House meetings at which policies are set ... meetings encompassing a surprisingly wide range of topics including intellectual property, national security, government contracts, digital media strategy, antitrust, biotechnology, energy and climate change, broadband and telecommunications, foreign policy, health care, aerospace and aeronautics," the report said. </p><p>Another missive from the organization suggested that Google was influencing government policymakers on the sly by funding researchers who kept quiet about their ties to the company while promoting policies favorable to Google. </p><p>"Google-funded academics are playing an outsize role in the debate over the U.S. government's policy on internet privacy, a rapidly evolving area and an existential issue for Google," the report said. "They are also often at the epicenter of policy research on antitrust issues in the age of digital platforms, another issue in which Google has a major stake."</p><p>Google declined to comment on the project's critiques.</p><p>But none of the corporate behaviors described in the critical reports surprised UC Berkeley's Blank.</p><p>"Businesses will spend what's necessary to influence policy," Blank said. "It raises the larger issue of whether any industry people should have that level of influence. We've built what I call a deep-pockets democracy. If you have deep pockets you have more access (to government officials) than a nonprofit or somebody who's trying to represent Americans.</p><p>"What's not being represented by either Oracle or Google is the public interest."</p><p>However, Google's competitors stand to gain from the Transparency Project's spotlight on the firm's aggressive efforts to mold policy, Cusumano of MIT said. Government officials might be less likely to make or promote policies benefiting Google if they felt the company's influence was being monitored, Cusumano said. </p><p>"They might re-evaluate what they're doing or thinking of doing," Cusumano said. </p><p>For a group devoted to "transparency," the Google project's origins are obscure. It is run by the nonprofit Campaign for Accountability, a group that says it is dedicated to exposing government and corporate malfeasance and which started as an offshoot of the deep-pocketed New Venture Fund.</p><p>The New Venture Fund is heavily supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. A Gates Foundation spokeswoman did not provide an answer when asked whether the foundation was aware of the venture fund's work on the Google Transparency Project. The Hewlett Foundation said none of its donations went to the project.</p><p>The Campaign for Accountability does not publicly reveal its connection to the venture fund -- in fact its deputy director claimed to this newspaper in July that it was not a project of NVF, despite this newspaper having donated $1 to the campaign and received a tax receipt from the fund in return. However, the fund's president later admitted it did run the Campaign, but said it was spinning it off into a new organization called Hopewell Fund.</p><p>Among Hopewell's three directors is Michael Slaby, who appears to be the same man who was an election-campaign-technology guru behind Obama's two successful runs, and whose campaign-tech platform The Groundwork is being used by the Hillary Clinton campaign. </p><p>In a bizarre and quite possibly coincidental twist, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is reportedly the main investor in The Groundwork, raising the puzzling specter of the influential and respected Googler funding the work of a man whose side project is attacking Google. Google declined to provide access to Schmidt, who is now executive chairman of Google parent Alphabet, and Slaby did not respond to interview requests.</p><p>Contact Ethan Baron at 408-920-5011. Follow him at <a href="http://Twitter.com/ethanbaron" >Twitter.com/ethanbaron</a>.</p><a href="http://Twitter.com/ethanbaron">Twitter.com/ethanbaron</a>/businesssecretive-foe-attacks-google-over-government-influencetrue568Secretive foe attacks Google over government influence3http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_30325315/secretive-foe-attacks-google-over-government-influenceBusiness30317120OAK-MARKETING-0902.xmltrue:biz:ebbiz:google: :bayarea:alco:hayward:oakland:pleasanthill:newsaiba:whatsnew: :warriors:By Mark Hedin, mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.comThu, 1 Sep 2016 09:33:58 PDTThu, 1 Sep 2016 09:34:00 PDTTue, 1 Sep 2026 09:33:55 PDTThu, 1 Sep 2016 09:34:00 PDTThu, 1 Sep 2016 09:34:28 PDTThu, 1 Sep 2016 09:34:00 PDT3113falseBy Mark Hedin&#44; mhedin&#64;bayareanewsgroup&#46;com2016-09-01T09:33:58-07:0020160901T093428-07002016-09-01T09:34:28-07:0020160901T093400-07002016090109/01/20162026-09-01T09:33:55-07:0032YGoogle, Warriors help connect businesses, aspiring graphic designersGoogle and Warriors foundation help fund a nonprofit to link aspiring graphic designers and small businesses.Google and Warriors foundation help fund a nonprofit to link aspiring graphic designers and small businesses.<p>The Oakland Digital Arts & Literacy Center got a big assist from Google and the Warriors Community Foundation to help bring young adults into the world of technology employment while assisting small businesses.</p><p>With funding from Google and the Warriors, the design studio last week unveiled an app, Bridgegood, designed to boost young creative careers by helping out the small business community it will connect them to.</p><p>Businesses that need to improve their online visibility, or could benefit from a fresh logo or something else a graphic designer might provide, such as brochures, will have ready access to people who can help them at affordable rates.</p><p>And those designers will have an opportunity to put their skills to use and build portfolios as they begin their careers.</p><p>"The aim is to address both sides: under-resourced businesses and young people who can be very creative but don't have the guidance or access to professional opportunities," said Shaun Tai, the nonprofit's executive director.</p><p>With a focus on brick and mortar companies such as his own mother's Rosewood House furniture shop on Broadway in Uptown, he said the plan is to get businesses to use Bridgegood to post requests for help to be completed within seven days for between $50 and $250 per project, and funnel a corps of talented young adults to take on the tasks.</p><p>Oakland Digital hit another jackpot when the Warriors Community Foundation pledged $500 to eight nonprofits for every three-pointer the team made this past season. </p><p>"We were one of them," Tai said. And the Dubs players came through big-time, hitting an all-time NBA record 1,007 threes this year.</p><p>Now, Bridgegood, too, is ready for prime time. </p><p>The nonprofit design studio on Harrison Street has trained thousands of Oakland and East Bay students, but "now we're able to make a stronger impact," Tai said. </p><p>"We were doing all this work in the community, and the board asked me, how do we scale this?" he said.</p><p>Google helped take the nonprofit to the next level with a multiyear, six-figure grant, Tai said. </p><p>Oakland Digital has been grooming college-age talent for years. With a focus on bridging the digital literacy divide, the nonprofit started out in 2009 working with Laney College, Berkeley City College, Cal State East Bay in Hayward, Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill and Mission College in Santa Clara to cultivate students, primarily of color and female, in digital graphic arts.</p><p>On a recent Tuesday, the center was relatively quiet, with four summer interns tapping away at laptop computers at a long table while another conferred with Tai about the launch party. </p><p>Interns Mary Luong, a Laney College student in applied graphic arts; Audrey Focant, a Berkeley City College communications student; Kale Cordero, a recent UC Davis graduate in design; and San Jose State grad Rosecary Aguinaldo (digital media), researched problems they were trying to solve.</p><p>Although they have earned or are earning degrees in related subjects, they are developing new skills and ways to work.</p><p>"There's a lot of learning about teamwork and collaborating," Cordero said. "I never learned that in school." </p><p>She is doing mobile mock-ups, something else she had not done before: working on how a website will look on the phone.</p><p>The mean wage of Oakland graphic designers is more than $71,000, according to the nonprofit. </p><p>Contact Mark Hedin at 510-293-2452, 408-759-2132, or <a href="mailto:mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.com" >mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.com</a>.</p><a href="mailto:mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.com">mhedin@bayareanewsgroup.com</a>/bay-area-newsgoogle-warriors-help-connect-businesses-aspiring-graphic-designerstrue568Google, Warriors help connect businesses, aspiring graphic designers3http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_30317120/google-warriors-help-connect-businesses-aspiring-graphic-designersNews30313264http://www.siliconbeat.com/?ptrueblogsiliconbeat http://www.siliconbeat.com/?p=112655 p_4fbf00c2-664d-4119-a320-c0d78e862421.xml<i></i>Wed, 31 Aug 2016 13:52:57 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 13:52:49 PDTMon, 31 Aug 2026 13:52:49 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 13:52:49 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 13:52:49 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 14:00:24 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 13:59:17 PDT3112false2016-08-31T13:52:57-07:0020160831T140024-07002016-08-31T13:54:25-07:0020160831T135917-07002016083108/31/20162026-08-31T13:52:49-07:0065YGoogle to oversee team from struggling smart-home firm NestDevelopers at troubled smart-home firm Nest have a new nest &ndash; in Google. The platform team at the company belonging to Google's parent Alphabet has been brought into Google, in a move that will reportedly make its finances look better.Developers at troubled smart-home firm Nest have a new nest &ndash; in Google. The platform team at the company belonging to Google's parent Alphabet has been brought into Google, in a move that will reportedly make its finances look better.<p>Developers at troubled smart-home firm Nest have a new nest – in Google. The platform team at the company belonging to Google's parent Alphabet has been brought into Google, in a move that will reportedly make its finances look better.</p><p>"Nest and Google are likely to pitch this as an obvious synergy, but it also plays into ongoing efforts to pare costs at smaller Alphabet units other than Google," Fortune reported Aug. 30. "By moving Nest software developers over to Google payroll, Nest's financial situation would improve dramatically."</p><p>Of course, that improvement would come only if Nest continued to develop money-making products, the article <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/08/30/google-nest-developers-alphabet/" >said</a>.</p><p>Nest has struggled since Google bought it in 2014. A few months after the purchase, Nest had to recall its "Protect" smoke detector because it could be shut off without the user being aware.</p><p>This year has been particularly rocky, starting in January with a software bug that caused Nest thermostats to shut down heating and cooling systems.</p><p>In April, Nest angered owners of its $299 Revolv smart-home hub by shutting down the hubs, whose sticker price was <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/04/05/google-reaches-out-and-shuts-off-customers-home-products/" >marketed </a>as including a "lifetime subscription."</p><p>In May, a former Nest employee filed a federal labor complaint that included <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/06/02/googles-nest-hit-labor-complaint-whistle-blowing/" >allegations </a>that Nest and Google conducted illegal surveillance of workers via their electronic devices, to prevent them from speaking out about workplace conditions.</p><p>In June, Tony Fadell <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29975765/nest-ceo-tony-fadell-leaves-company-will-advise" >left </a>his position at CEO amid <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/technology/tony-fadell-nest-google-alphabet.html?_r=0" >complaints </a>about his management style and the company's culture.</p><p>Under Google, Nest will be tasked with developing a "unified" platform for connecting smart devices in what's known as the "internet of things," according to Fortune, which provided no information about its sources for the <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/08/30/google-nest-developers-alphabet/" >article</a>.</p><p><em>Photo: Wikimedia Commons (Raysonho@Open Grid Scheduler/Grid Engine)</em></p><p>The post <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/31/struggling-smart-home-firm-nest-dragged-back-into-google/" >Google to oversee team from struggling smart-home firm Nest</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com" >SiliconBeat</a>.</p><a href="http://fortune.com/2016/08/30/google-nest-developers-alphabet/">said</a><a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/04/05/google-reaches-out-and-shuts-off-customers-home-products/">marketed </a><a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/06/02/googles-nest-hit-labor-complaint-whistle-blowing/">allegations </a><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29975765/nest-ceo-tony-fadell-leaves-company-will-advise">left </a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/04/technology/tony-fadell-nest-google-alphabet.html?_r=0">complaints </a><a href="http://fortune.com/2016/08/30/google-nest-developers-alphabet/">article</a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/31/struggling-smart-home-firm-nest-dragged-back-into-google/">Google to oversee team from struggling smart-home firm Nest</a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com">SiliconBeat</a>

49290026http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__p_4fbf00c2-664d-4119-a320-c0d78e862421~l~soriginal~ph.jpg4803181720149290029http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__p_4fbf00c2-664d-4119-a320-c0d78e862421~l~soriginal~ph_100.jpg10066157249290030http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__p_4fbf00c2-664d-4119-a320-c0d78e862421~l~soriginal~ph_200.jpg200133365449290031http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__p_4fbf00c2-664d-4119-a320-c0d78e862421~l~soriginal~ph_300.jpg300199615249290032http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__p_4fbf00c2-664d-4119-a320-c0d78e862421~l~soriginal~ph_400.jpg40026591791/businessgoogle-oversee-team-from-struggling-smart-home-firmtrue568Google to oversee team from struggling smart-home firm Nest6http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/31/struggling-smart-home-firm-nest-dragged-back-into-google/Businessheader30313262imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__p_4fbf00c2-664d-4119-a320-c0d78e862421~l~soriginal~ph.jpg30312399http://www.siliconbeat.com/?ptrueblogsiliconbeat http://www.siliconbeat.com/?p=112601 p_cbc3d3fa-4628-48c3-bf13-21518be6725e.xml<i></i>Wed, 31 Aug 2016 10:03:06 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 10:44:21 PDTMon, 31 Aug 2026 10:03:01 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 10:03:01 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 10:44:21 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 12:04:25 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 12:03:55 PDT3112false2016-08-31T10:03:06-07:0020160831T120425-07002016-08-31T10:04:26-07:0020160831T120355-07002016083108/31/20162026-08-31T10:03:01-07:0098YEver see Googlers in sheep's clothing?Those zany madcaps over at Google have been having WAY too much fun lately. What kind of fun? The kind you have when you get to strap Google's high-tech street-view cameras to some of the 70,000 sheep wandering around the Faroe Islands.Those zany madcaps over at Google have been having WAY too much fun lately. What kind of fun? The kind you have when you get to strap Google's high-tech street-view cameras to some of the 70,000 sheep wandering around the Faroe Islands.<p>Those zany madcaps over at Google have been having WAY too much fun lately.</p><p>What kind of fun? The kind you have when you get to strap Google's high-tech street-view cameras to some of the 70,000 sheep wandering around the Faroe Islands, a self-governing archipelago that's part of the Kingdom of Denmark.</p><p>We'd mentioned <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/07/14/off-topic-805/" >here l</a>ast month that some folks up in the Faroes apparently felt it was time to street-view the heck out of their lonely 18 rocky islands in the middle of nowhere:</p><p>Living across 18 tiny sub-polar islands in the north Atlantic, Faroe islanders are used to working in difficult conditions. So tired of waiting for <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_company=Google&article=true" >Google</a> Street View to come and map the roads, causeways and bridges of the archipelago, a team has set up its own mapping project – <a href="http://visitfaroeislands.com/sheepview360/" >Sheep View 360</a>. With the help of a local shepherd and a specially built harness built by a fellow islander, Durita Dahl Andreassen of <a href="http://visitfaroeislands.com/" >Visit Faroe Islands</a> has fitted five of the island's sheep with a 360-degree camera. As the sheep walk and graze around the island, the pictures are sent back to Andreassen with GPS co-ordinates, which she then uploads to Google Street View.</p><p>Well, apparently Google liked the idea so much that it jumped into the project with all four woolly feet, according to its blog. (But first a warning: <a href="https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/sheep-view-where-theres-wool-theres-way.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/MKuf+(Official+Google+Blog)" >the blogger</a> has never met a pun he didn't like!) So when the Faroese decided to "document the country for Street View, sheep weren't a baaad place to start."</p><p>When we herd about the Sheep View project, we thought it was shear brilliance. So we decided to help the Faroese by supplying them with a Street View trekker and 360 cameras via our . Last week, the Google Maps team arrived in the Faroe Islands to help train and equip the local community to capture even more (but slightly less woolly) Street View imagery.</p><p>Here's what the sheep saw:</p><a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/07/14/off-topic-805/">here l</a><a class="search" href="http://www.irishtimes.com/search/search-7.1213540?tag_company=Google&article=true">Google</a><a href="http://visitfaroeislands.com/sheepview360/">Sheep View 360</a><a href="http://visitfaroeislands.com/">Visit Faroe Islands</a><a href="https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/sheep-view-where-theres-wool-theres-way.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+blogspot/MKuf+(Official+Google+Blog)">the blogger</a><a href="https://docs.google.com/a/google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeMgMA6RnUjfNt4f16Qnk5i0M7wZ2HxXEpljoqDjvNXPSnN1Q/viewform"></a>/businessever-see-googlers-sheep-s-clothingtrue568Ever see Googlers in sheep's clothing?9http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/31/ever-see-googlers-sheeps-clothing/Business30311762web-waze-0831.xmltrue:biz:sv2020news:whatsnew:bizbreaking:locbreak:By Michael Liedtke, Associated PressWed, 31 Aug 2016 05:59:46 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 05:59:50 PDTMon, 31 Aug 2026 06:01:43 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 05:59:50 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 06:08:24 PDTWed, 31 Aug 2016 06:07:50 PDT3112falseBy Michael Liedtke&#44; Associated Press2016-08-31T05:59:46-07:0020160831T060824-07002016-08-31T06:00:24-07:0020160831T060750-07002016083108/31/20162026-08-31T06:01:43-07:0098YGoogle to expand Waze carpooling service in San FranciscoNow, only people working at six companies can request rides. But Waze is preparing to move into the next phase and allow anyone in the Bay Area with its app to request a ride by the end of this year.Now, only people working at six companies can request rides. But Waze is preparing to move into the next phase and allow anyone in the Bay Area with its app to request a ride by the end of this year.<p>SAN FRANCISCO -- Google is preparing to expand a San Francisco carpooling program in a move that could that could set up a showdown with its one-time ally, the popular ride-hailing service Uber. </p><p>The plans will build upon a test service that Google's navigation app Waze launched three months ago in the San Francisco Bay Area. </p><p>The program allows anyone using the Waze app to offer a ride to a limited pool of people trying to get to work or home. </p><p>Now, only people working at six companies, including Google, Wal-Mart Stores and Adobe Systems, can request rides. The tests have worked well enough to encourage Waze to move into the next phase and allow anyone in the Bay Area with its app to request a ride by the end of this year, spokeswoman Julie Mossler said. </p><p>Inviting more people to hitch rides could undercut Uber, which allows people to request drivers who provide a taxi service using their own cars. </p><p>Unlike Uber, Waze isn't trying to make money for itself or the drivers offering to share a ride. </p><p>Instead, Waze sets a variable fee of up to 54 cents per mile to reimburse the drivers for gasoline and maintenance on their vehicles. The riders pay that fee. </p><p>Waze also limits trips to a rider's work or home, with a maximum of two trips per day. Although riders can request a ride at any time, Waze is focusing the service on providing trips during peak commute times in the mornings and evenings. Only one rider is allowed per vehicle. </p><p>In contrast, Uber touts its around-the-clock service as a way for its drivers to make a decent living or supplement their incomes. Uber also hopes to eventually turn a profit itself to justify its financial backers' belief that the privately held company is worth more than $60 billion. </p><p>Google, now a subsidiary of Alphabet, was among Uber's early investors. It invested $258 million in Uber in 2013. </p><p>But the two companies now appear headed down a road more likely to make them foes than friends. Things already have become tense enough to prompt David Drummond, Alphabet's senior vice president of corporate development, to resign from Uber's board because of potential conflicts with Google's ambitions in transportation. </p><p>Uber CEO Travis Kalanick confirmed Drummond's departure from the board Monday in a statement that described him as a sage adviser and great personal friend. Kalanick also said he looked forward to "continued cooperation and partnership" with Alphabet. </p><p>Uber declined to comment Tuesday on the planned expansion of Waze's carpooling service in one of its biggest markets. </p><p>Besides testing the Waze carpooling service, Google has been building self-driving cars for the past seven years. Uber is now designing its own robot-powered vehicles and is using some of the autonomous cars to provide rides in Pittsburgh. </p><p>Google has previously gone to battle with its former allies. In the most prominent instance, then-CEO Eric Schmidt served on Apple's board for three years, but stepped down in 2009 as Google's Android operating system for smartphones began undercut sales of Apple's iPhone. Before he died in 2011, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told his biographer that he believed Google had stolen ideas conceived for the iPhone's software to create Android. </p>

Traffic navigation app Waze is shown on a smartphone.

Associated Press49284850http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__waze-0831~1.JPG64548010559749284853http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__waze-0831~1_100.JPG10074908149284854http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__waze-0831~1_200.JPG2001491300049284855http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__waze-0831~1_300.JPG3002231847149284856http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__waze-0831~1_400.JPG4002982499249284857http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__waze-0831~1_500.JPG500372327451/businessgoogle-expand-waze-carpooling-service-san-franciscotrue568Google to expand Waze carpooling service in San Francisco9http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_30311762/google-expand-waze-carpooling-service-san-franciscoBusinessposition230311781imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0831/20160831__waze-0831~1.JPGTraffic navigation app Waze is shown on a smartphone.Associated Press30308014http://www.siliconbeat.com/?ptrueblogsiliconbeat http://www.siliconbeat.com/?p=112553 p_daa16f8c-7616-453b-a8a0-d8c525ecc97d.xml<i></i>Tue, 30 Aug 2016 11:39:02 PDTMon, 29 Aug 2016 23:39:00 PDTSun, 30 Aug 2026 11:39:00 PDTMon, 29 Aug 2016 23:39:00 PDTMon, 29 Aug 2016 23:39:00 PDTTue, 30 Aug 2016 12:12:19 PDTTue, 30 Aug 2016 12:11:27 PDT3111false2016-08-30T11:39:02-07:0020160830T121219-07002016-08-30T11:40:22-07:0020160830T121127-07002016083008/30/20162026-08-30T11:39:00-07:0098YGoogle to pay $5.5 million for sneaking around Apple's privacy settings to scoop user dataThe lawsuit arose out of the 2012 discovery by a Stanford researcher that Google had used a workaround to track Safari users' web browsing habits.The lawsuit arose out of the 2012 discovery by a Stanford researcher that Google had used a workaround to track Safari users' web browsing habits.<p>Perhaps if Google had taken its own "don't be evil" motto to heart, it wouldn't be on the hook for a $5.5 million settlement after sneaking around Apple's privacy settings to plunder web browser Safari for user data.</p><p>Google agreed Monday to pay the settlement in a class action suit that accused it of "unfair, deceptive, and unlawful business practices."</p><p>The lawsuit arose out of the 2012 discovery by a Stanford researcher that Google had used a <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2012/02/17/google-safari-and-the-wild-web-at-war/" >workaround </a>to track Safari users' web browsing habits.</p><p>Apple, which owns Safari, had built into it privacy controls that blocked certain cookies, small files that store information that can identify users or track their activities.</p><p>Google used the improperly harvested user data to dramatically boost ad revenue, the lawsuit suggested. "Behaviorally targeted advertisements based on a user's tracked internet activity generally sell for at least twice as much as non-targeted, run-of-network ads," the suit said.</p><p>Millions of people throughout the U.S. were affected by Google's actions, the <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/322566296/Google-Browser-Settlement" >settlement agreement </a>(posted by Fortune) said. However, members of the plaintiff class won't receive settlement money – minus legal fees and settlement expenses, it's to go to six technology and privacy groups including the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology and the Center for Internet & Society at Stanford.</p><p>SiliconBeat has asked Google for a response to the settlement, and may include any response after it's received.</p><p><em>Photo: A man walks past a building on the Google campus in Mountain View in 2015. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)</em></p><p>The post <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/30/google-pay-5-5-million-sneaking-around-apples-privacy-settings-scoop-user-data/" >Google to pay $5.5 million for sneaking around Apple's privacy settings to scoop user data</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com" >SiliconBeat</a>.</p><a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2012/02/17/google-safari-and-the-wild-web-at-war/">workaround </a><a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/322566296/Google-Browser-Settlement">settlement agreement </a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/30/google-pay-5-5-million-sneaking-around-apples-privacy-settings-scoop-user-data/">Google to pay $5.5 million for sneaking around Apple's privacy settings to scoop user data</a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com">SiliconBeat</a>

In this Nov. 12, 2015 photo, a man walks past a building on the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif. Teams in the workplace are most productive when they can count on each other for quality work, feel safe to take risks and believe in their mission. Thatâ s according to new research at Google, a company that studies its own successes and failures as closely as it studies algorithms, refining interactions and teamwork among some of its employees with anthropological researchers and business scholars. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Jeff Chiu49273593http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0830/20160830__p_daa16f8c-7616-453b-a8a0-d8c525ecc97d~l~soriginal~ph.jpg4803243024449273596http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0830/20160830__p_daa16f8c-7616-453b-a8a0-d8c525ecc97d~l~soriginal~ph_100.jpg10068199449273597http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0830/20160830__p_daa16f8c-7616-453b-a8a0-d8c525ecc97d~l~soriginal~ph_200.jpg200135489749273598http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0830/20160830__p_daa16f8c-7616-453b-a8a0-d8c525ecc97d~l~soriginal~ph_300.jpg300203929549273599http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0830/20160830__p_daa16f8c-7616-453b-a8a0-d8c525ecc97d~l~soriginal~ph_400.jpg400270146691/businessgoogle-pay-5-5-million-sneaking-around-appletrue568Google to pay $5.5 million for sneaking around Apple's privacy settings to scoop user data9http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/30/google-pay-5-5-million-sneaking-around-apples-privacy-settings-scoop-user-data/Businessheader30308016imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0830/20160830__p_daa16f8c-7616-453b-a8a0-d8c525ecc97d~l~soriginal~ph.jpgIn this Nov. 12, 2015 photo, a man walks past a building on the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif. Teams in the workplace are most productive when they can count on each other for quality work, feel safe to take risks and believe in their mission. Thatâ s according to new research at Google, a company that studies its own successes and failures as closely as it studies algorithms, refining interactions and teamwork among some of its employees with anthropological researchers and business scholars. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)Jeff Chiu30303122WEB-DOTCOM-0829.xmltrue:google:sv2020news: :intl:whatsnew:By Nick Perry, Associated PressMon, 29 Aug 2016 07:45:22 PDTMon, 29 Aug 2016 07:45:23 PDTSat, 29 Aug 2026 07:45:18 PDTMon, 29 Aug 2016 07:45:23 PDTMon, 29 Aug 2016 08:42:24 PDTMon, 29 Aug 2016 08:40:24 PDT3110falseBy Nick Perry&#44; Associated Press2016-08-29T07:45:22-07:0020160829T084224-07002016-08-29T07:46:20-07:0020160829T084024-07002016082908/29/20162026-08-29T07:45:18-07:001211YKim Dotcom wants YouTube livestream of extradition hearing in Megaupload caseWELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom wants to livestream his legal battle against the United States on YouTube.WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom wants to livestream his legal battle against the United States on YouTube.<p>WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom wants to livestream his legal battle against the United States on YouTube. </p><p>Dotcom's lawyers have asked if they can film his extradition appeal, which began Monday at New Zealand's High Court in Auckland. The U.S. opposes the plan. </p><p>Justice Murray Gilbert, the New Zealand judge hearing the appeal, criticized Dotcom's request for coming at the last-minute but said he'd let other media discuss it before making a decision, the National Business Review newspaper reported. </p><p>A New Zealand judge last year ruled that Dotcom and three of his colleagues could be extradited to the U.S. to face conspiracy, racketeering and money-laundering charges. If found guilty, they could face decades in jail. </p><p>The ruling came nearly four years after the U.S. shut down Dotcom's file-sharing site Megaupload, which prosecutors say was widely used by people to illegally download songs, television shows and movies. </p><p>Megaupload was once one of the internet's most popular sites. Prosecutors say it raked in at least $175 million and cost copyright holders more than $500 million. </p><p>But Dotcom and his colleagues argue they can't be held responsible for people who chose to use the site for illegal purposes. </p><p>In his application to livestream the case, Dotcom's lawyer Ron Mansfield said the streaming would have a 10-minute delay to ensure sensitive information could be censored, the NBR newspaper reported. </p><p>Mansfield also argued livestreaming would ensure balanced and fast reporting, as opposed to the constraints of traditional media. </p><p>Dotcom and colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato are seeking to halt their extradition. They say lower court judge Nevin Dawson didn't give their arguments a fair hearing. </p><p>Grant Illingworth, the lawyer for Ortmann and van der Kolk, told the high court Monday the case "has gone off the rails," NBR reported. </p><p>Born in Germany as Kim Schmitz, Dotcom has long enjoyed a flamboyant lifestyle. He was arrested in New Zealand in 2012 after a dramatic police raid on his mansion. </p><p>Out on bail soon after, he released a music album, started another Internet file-sharing company called Mega, and launched a political party which unsuccessfully contested the nation's 2014 election. More recently, Dotcom has promised to launch a reboot of Megaupload next year. </p>

Kim Dotcom leaves with his girlfriend Elizabeth Donelly following his extradition appeal at the High Court in Auckland on August 29, 2016.

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 3, 2013 file photo, Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom speaks during the Intelligence and Security select committee hearing at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand. Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom wants to livestream his legal battle against the United States on YouTube. Dotcom's lawyers have asked if they can film his extradition appeal, which began Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, at New Zealand's High Court in Auckland. The U.S. opposes the plan. (Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP, File)

Mark Mitchell
49257855http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0829/20160829__dotcom~1.JPG6454569708649257858http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0829/20160829__dotcom~1_100.JPG10071944549257859http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0829/20160829__dotcom~1_200.JPG2001411337649257860http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0829/20160829__dotcom~1_300.JPG3002121867149257861http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0829/20160829__dotcom~1_400.JPG4002832447349257862http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0829/20160829__dotcom~1_500.JPG500353313092/businesskim-dotcom-wants-youtube-livestream-extradition-hearing-megauploadtrue568Kim Dotcom wants YouTube livestream of extradition hearing in Megaupload case12http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_30303122/kim-dotcom-wants-youtube-livestream-extradition-hearing-megauploadBusinessheader30301968freeform<div class="ndn_embed" data-config-widget-id="2" style="width:600px;height:338px" data-config-type="VideoPlayer/Single" data-config-tracking-group="90757" data-config-playlist-id="13434" data-config-video-id="31321029" data-config-site-section="mercurynews"> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push(['embed']);</script> position230303103imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0829/20160829__dotcom~2.JPG
Kim Dotcom leaves with his girlfriend Elizabeth Donelly following his extradition appeal at the High Court in Auckland on August 29, 2016.Kate Dwek / AFP Gettyposition330303101imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0829/20160829__dotcom~1.JPG
FILE - In this Wednesday, July 3, 2013 file photo, Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom speaks during the Intelligence and Security select committee hearing at Parliament in Wellington, New Zealand. Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom wants to livestream his legal battle against the United States on YouTube. Dotcom's lawyers have asked if they can film his extradition appeal, which began Monday, Aug. 29, 2016, at New Zealand's High Court in Auckland. The U.S. opposes the plan. (Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP, File)
Mark Mitchell
30295551SJM-GOOGDRIVE-0827.xmltrue:biz:bizstaff:Google:whatsnew:bizbreaking:By Ethan Baron, ebaron@bayareanewsgroup.comFri, 26 Aug 2016 17:45:58 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 17:45:59 PDTWed, 26 Aug 2026 18:18:00 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 17:45:59 PDTMon, 29 Aug 2016 03:38:20 PDTMon, 29 Aug 2016 03:38:06 PDT3107falseBy Ethan Baron&#44; ebaron&#64;bayareanewsgroup&#46;com2016-08-26T17:45:58-07:0020160829T033820-07002016-08-26T17:46:17-07:0020160829T033806-07002016082608/26/20162026-08-26T18:18:00-07:001211YGoogle's rivals in self-driving cars may force it into hard choiceShould the company stay on the road to full autonomy or emulate rivals for commercial success?<br />Should the company stay on the road to full autonomy or emulate rivals for commercial success?<br /><p>MOUNTAIN VIEW -- The sudden acceleration in deployment of self-driving technology could confront Google with a choice: stick to its fundamental plan to develop fully autonomous vehicles or downshift to join rivals who are poised to put less-advanced semi-autonomous cars on the road first. </p><p>Amid a blitz of progress announcements this month from robot-car firms that could beat Google to commercial success, the Mountain View tech titan on Friday confirmed it has hired a new head of its self-driving program who is known for steering the successful expansion of Airbnb into a new market. </p><p>"At some point the rubber has to hit the road," said Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor Raj Rajkumar, whose work is focused on self-driving cars. "My understanding is they've spent several hundreds of millions of dollars on this project, and that they're still spending $100 million a year. As far as I know there's not a single penny of revenue. With the new Airbnb executive, they have to look at what are the opportunities for monetizing."</p><p>But while Google has adhered to a belief that self-driving cars should only go to market when the need for human intervention has been eliminated -- a step many experts believe is years away -- the firm's rivals are already putting out self-driving systems that stop short of full autonomy but take much of the work out of driving.</p><p>Tesla and other carmakers, including Honda, BMW, Volvo and Mercedes, are introducing cars with semi-autonomous features such as emergency braking, lane keeping and collision avoidance. </p><p>Other companies are rushing to put fully autonomous vehicles to work, even if humans are still needed as backup. Last week, Uber announced it would start testing 100 self-driving, ride-hailing cars with human drivers prepared to take over in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this month. This week, self-driving software firm nuTonomy started a pilot "robo-taxi" project in Singapore deploying self-driving cars, also with people on board ready to assume control, and automotive suppliers Delphi Automotive and Israeli startup Mobileye announced a partnership to build self-driving systems that carmakers could put in their vehicles by the end of 2019.</p><p>Earlier this month, Ford said it was doubling in size its 130-member Silicon Valley self-driving car team and adding two new buildings to meet its target of selling fully autonomous vehicles by 2021. In May, General Motors and ride-hailing firm Lyft said they would begin testing self-driving electric taxis on public roads by year's end. </p><p>But not all has gone smoothly for self-driving technology. Tesla's "Autopilot" mode showcases the value of the incremental approach -- and the perils. The technology is considered road ready by regulators and has helped the firm successfully market its pricey electric vehicles. However, the death earlier this year of a driver who failed to intervene when the Autopilot system in his Tesla missed seeing a truck in its path, shows exactly what Google has been hoping to avoid by pushing for full automation instead of a step-by-step process.</p><p>"This has been the debate roiling the community," Rajkumar said.</p><p>But now, with competitors racing for market share, Google must decide whether to hang onto full autonomy, which Rajkumar believes is at least a decade away. Within Google, debates over the self-driving car program are bound to focus on whether to pivot toward an incremental approach to autonomy, Rajkumar believes. </p><p>Google declined to comment.</p><p>With new disruptions in the self-driving car industry erupting virtually every week, and turmoil within the Google robot-car program -- chief technology officer Chris Urmson quit earlier this month, following at least two engineers out the door -- the company has brought in former Airbnb executive Shaun Stewart as director of the program. Stewart had been hired at Airbnb from TripAdvisor in 2014, to expand Airbnb's reach to vacation rentals from urban home and room rentals.</p><p>"I see a lot of parallels," said Douglas Quinby, vice president of research at travel industry research firm Phocuswright. "His job was to basically commercialize Airbnb for the vacation-rental world. Airbnb is a company that is very disruptive. He's proved to be a pretty capable bridge to build inroads for Airbnb into what should be a pretty significant market opportunity."</p><p>Although Google hasn't revealed what, exactly, will be Stewart's primary goals, he has shown an ability to build relationships with partner organizations and technology companies that were important to Airbnb's success in breaking into the vacation rentals market, Quinby said.</p><p>"Shaun is certainly an interesting choice," Quinby said. "He's shown he can certainly do it through travel."</p><p> Contact Ethan Baron at 408-920-5011 or follow him at <a href="http://Twitter.com/ethanbaron" >Twitter.com/ethanbaron</a>.</p><a href="http://Twitter.com/ethanbaron">Twitter.com/ethanbaron</a>

Patrick Tehan&#47;Bay Area News Group49233251http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__sjm-googdrive-0826-1~1.JPG64539910329049233254http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__sjm-googdrive-0826-1~1_100.JPG10062829149233255http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__sjm-googdrive-0826-1~1_200.JPG2001241233149233256http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__sjm-googdrive-0826-1~1_300.JPG3001861810649233257http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__sjm-googdrive-0826-1~1_400.JPG4002472444049233258http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__sjm-googdrive-0826-1~1_500.JPG500309323731/businessgoogles-rivals-self-driving-cars-may-force-ittrue568Google's rivals in self-driving cars may force it into hard choice12http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_30295551/googles-rivals-self-driving-cars-may-force-itBusinessposition230295592imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__sjm-googdrive-0826-1~1.JPGFile photo: A Google self-driving car at Google's offices in Mountain View, Calif., April 14, 2016. Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group30294387http://www.siliconbeat.com/?ptrueblogsiliconbeat http://www.siliconbeat.com/?p=112344 p_212a3cd7-f94e-4ad0-931b-07f9a20d5dc7.xml<i></i>Fri, 26 Aug 2016 10:51:22 PDTThu, 25 Aug 2016 23:22:56 PDTWed, 26 Aug 2026 11:22:56 PDTThu, 25 Aug 2016 23:22:56 PDTThu, 25 Aug 2016 23:22:56 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 11:24:22 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 11:23:00 PDT3107false2016-08-26T10:51:22-07:0020160826T112422-07002016-08-26T10:58:25-07:0020160826T112300-07002016082608/26/20162026-08-26T11:22:56-07:0098YGoogle and Facebook may have to pay for use of news in EuropeIt is the issue that won t go away for Google, Facebook and other internet companies: Should they have to pay news organizations for using a snippet of their content?It is the issue that won t go away for Google, Facebook and other internet companies: Should they have to pay news organizations for using a snippet of their content?<p>It is the issue that won t go away for Google, Facebook and other internet companies: Should they have to pay news organizations for using a snippet of their content?</p><p>The European Commission is planning to propose rules that will allow European news organizations to levy fees on Google, Facebook and other internet firms for using their content, the <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e3d652da-6ad4-11e6-a0b1-d87a9fea034f.html#axzz4ISSr869n" target="_blank" >Financial Times</a> reports.</p><p>The rules will be published in September and will likely put more strain on U.S. and European officials, the FT said.</p><p>The impetus for the proposals is to give more financial support to European publishers at a time when Google and Facebook are earning increasingly more of the advertising revenue pie.</p><p>Performers, broadcasters and others already have the protection the Commission is considering, which is called neighboring rights. </p><p>Prior efforts to force internet firms to pay up in both Germany and Spain have not worked. In Germany, publishers waived the charge when traffic to their sites dropped. And in Spain, Google responded by shutting down Google News.</p><p>Under the Commission s proposal, media companies would not have to require internet firms to pay for the use of snippets.</p><p>A spokesman for the European Commission said, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/25/eu-proposals-could-see-news-publishers-paid-by-google-and-facebook" target="_blank" >The Guardian</a>:</p><p>The commission is considering whether to grant such rights to news publishers. It would recognise their role as investors in content and give them a stronger position when negotiating with other market players.</p><p><em>Photo: The Google logo at an event. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)</em></p><p>The post <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/26/112344/" >Google and Facebook may have to pay for use of news in Europe</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com" >SiliconBeat</a>.</p><a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e3d652da-6ad4-11e6-a0b1-d87a9fea034f.html#axzz4ISSr869n" target="_blank">Financial Times</a><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/aug/25/eu-proposals-could-see-news-publishers-paid-by-google-and-facebook" target="_blank">The Guardian</a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/26/112344/">Google and Facebook may have to pay for use of news in Europe</a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com">SiliconBeat</a>

(FILES) This September 2, 2012 file photo shows the Google logo during a press announcement at Google headquarters in New York. Days after announcing a ban on sexually explicit content or "graphic nudity" on its Blogger platform, Google has reversed course. Google said February 27, 2015 that after a barrage of public comments, it decided not to implement the ban, but instead would step up efforts to enforce its policy barring "commercial porn." "We've had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities," product manager Jessica Pelegio said in a post to the Google product forum. AFP PHOTO/EMMANUEL DUNAND/ FILESEMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

EMMANUEL DUNAND49229132http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__p_212a3cd7-f94e-4ad0-931b-07f9a20d5dc7~l~soriginal~ph.jpg4803292129749229135http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__p_212a3cd7-f94e-4ad0-931b-07f9a20d5dc7~l~soriginal~ph_100.jpg10069219749229136http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__p_212a3cd7-f94e-4ad0-931b-07f9a20d5dc7~l~soriginal~ph_200.jpg200137480649229137http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__p_212a3cd7-f94e-4ad0-931b-07f9a20d5dc7~l~soriginal~ph_300.jpg300206823549229138http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__p_212a3cd7-f94e-4ad0-931b-07f9a20d5dc7~l~soriginal~ph_400.jpg400274117311/businessgoogle-and-facebook-may-have-pay-european-newstrue568Google and Facebook may have to pay for use of news in Europe9http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/26/112344/Businessheader30294452imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__p_212a3cd7-f94e-4ad0-931b-07f9a20d5dc7~l~soriginal~ph.jpg(FILES) This September 2, 2012 file photo shows the Google logo during a press announcement at Google headquarters in New York. Days after announcing a ban on sexually explicit content or "graphic nudity" on its Blogger platform, Google has reversed course. Google said February 27, 2015 that after a barrage of public comments, it decided not to implement the ban, but instead would step up efforts to enforce its policy barring "commercial porn." "We've had a ton of feedback, in particular about the introduction of a retroactive change (some people have had accounts for 10+ years), but also about the negative impact on individuals who post sexually explicit content to express their identities," product manager Jessica Pelegio said in a post to the Google product forum. AFP PHOTO/EMMANUEL DUNAND/ FILESEMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty ImagesEMMANUEL DUNAND30291461http://www.siliconbeat.com/?ptrueblogsiliconbeat http://www.siliconbeat.com/?p=112294 p_15eaf8d0-e55b-4cf9-af2c-5b8c7bfdb833.xml<i></i>Thu, 25 Aug 2016 17:43:54 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 04:31:17 PDTTue, 25 Aug 2026 17:43:52 PDTThu, 25 Aug 2016 17:43:52 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 04:31:17 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 07:34:20 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 07:34:06 PDT3106false2016-08-25T17:43:54-07:0020160826T073420-07002016-08-25T17:44:22-07:0020160826T073406-07002016082508/25/20162026-08-25T17:43:52-07:0098YGoogle Fiber ordered to halve staff as Larry Page orders huge costs cut: reportThe mystery around what's happening with Google Fiber just deepened. Alphabet, Google's parent company, has reportedly directed Google Fiber to cut its staff in half.The mystery around what's happening with Google Fiber just deepened. Alphabet, Google's parent company, has reportedly directed Google Fiber to cut its staff in half.<p>The mystery around what's happening with Google Fiber just deepened. Alphabet, Google's parent company, has reportedly directed Google Fiber to cut its staff in half.</p><p>Already, Google Fiber has put rollout plans on hold in San Jose, Mountain View, Palo Alto and every other location where it announced intentions to provide the ultra-high-speed internet service but hasn't obtained access to existing fiber cable or started putting in its own. A source close to the situation told the Mercury News that Google Fiber was exploring <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_30221848/google-fibers-silicon-valley-rollout-is-delayed-while" >alternatives</a> involving wireless internet delivery. Google and Alphabet have kept fairly quiet about the on-again, off-again status of Google Fiber in Silicon Valley and other areas around the country.</p><p>Now, with Google Fiber customers numbering fewer than expected, and costs higher than anticipated, Alphabet CEO Larry Page has ordered Google Fiber head Craig Barratt to cut his team in half, The Information <a href="https://www.theinformation.com/inside-the-battle-over-google-fiber" >reported </a>(paywall) Thursday.</p><p>"Alphabet co-founders Mr. Page and Sergey Brin aren't satisfied with the pace of Google Fiber's rollout or the costs," according to The Information. "The main problem is that costs were much higher than Google expected. Mr. Page has also told Mr. Barratt to reduce the current cost of bringing Google Fiber to customers' homes to one-tenth the current level."</p><p>The report by The Information is based on anonymous sources, one of whom said the Fiber team was on a "short leash" and had been told to solve the project's problems via wireless solutions.</p><p>Those solutions derive in part from technology Google Fiber gained earlier this year through acquisition of internet-service provider Webpass, according to the source who spoke to the Mercury News.</p><p>A number of analysts have also <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_30235500/google-pushes-rivals-offer-high-speed-internet-service" >hypothesized </a>to the Mercury News that Google Fiber may have announced broad rollout plans in order to spur competitors such as AT&T and Comcast into putting in fiber networks that would allow people to consume more Google faster, putting more ads on Google sites in front of more eyeballs.</p><p><em>Photo: A lineman places fiber optic cable in San Mateo (Eugene H. Louie)</em></p><p>The post <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/25/google-fiber-ordered-to-halve-staff-as-larry-page-orders-huge-costs-cut-report/" >Google Fiber ordered to halve staff as Larry Page orders huge costs cut: report</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com" >SiliconBeat</a>.</p><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_30221848/google-fibers-silicon-valley-rollout-is-delayed-while">alternatives</a><a href="https://www.theinformation.com/inside-the-battle-over-google-fiber">reported </a><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_30235500/google-pushes-rivals-offer-high-speed-internet-service">hypothesized </a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/25/google-fiber-ordered-to-halve-staff-as-larry-page-orders-huge-costs-cut-report/">Google Fiber ordered to halve staff as Larry Page orders huge costs cut: report</a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com">SiliconBeat</a>Google Fiber releases San Jose construction plan -- a major milestone for projecthttp://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_29908965/google-fiber-releases-san-jose-construction-plan-major29908965San Jose's Google Fiber rollout is delayed while tech giant explores alternativeshttp://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_30221848/google-fibers-silicon-valley-rollout-is-delayed-while30221848Why San Jose gets left at the altar -- by Steve Jobs, Tesla, Google ...http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_30228874/why-san-jose-gets-left-at-altar30228874Google to secretly test wireless internet in Silicon Valley cities where Google Fiber is delayedhttp://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/10/google-test-wireless-internet-silicon-valley-cities-google-fiber-delayed/30230742

EUGENE H. LOUIE PHOTOGRAPH 2/2/2000 COMPETE - RCN journeyman lineman Maloni Niu (CQ) is placing, what in the fiber optic cable business is called, "strand" along a line of utility poles in San Mateo Thursday February 3, 2000. "Strand" is a support cable which eventually will be used to supporting a high speed fiber optic cable, installed by RCN which will compete with existing infrastructure. RCN is wiring its own cable network to compete in the local telephone, high speed Internet and cable television delivery business.

Eugene H&#46; Louie49220335http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__p_15eaf8d0-e55b-4cf9-af2c-5b8c7bfdb833~l~soriginal~ph.jpg4803244203049220338http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__p_15eaf8d0-e55b-4cf9-af2c-5b8c7bfdb833~l~soriginal~ph_100.jpg10068250749220339http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__p_15eaf8d0-e55b-4cf9-af2c-5b8c7bfdb833~l~soriginal~ph_200.jpg200135694349220340http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__p_15eaf8d0-e55b-4cf9-af2c-5b8c7bfdb833~l~soriginal~ph_300.jpg3002031330849220341http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__p_15eaf8d0-e55b-4cf9-af2c-5b8c7bfdb833~l~soriginal~ph_400.jpg400270207261/businessgoogle-fiber-ordered-halve-staff-larry-page-orderstrue568Google Fiber ordered to halve staff as Larry Page orders huge costs cut: report9http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/25/google-fiber-ordered-to-halve-staff-as-larry-page-orders-huge-costs-cut-report/Businessheader30291462imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__p_15eaf8d0-e55b-4cf9-af2c-5b8c7bfdb833~l~soriginal~ph.jpgEUGENE H. LOUIE PHOTOGRAPH 2/2/2000 COMPETE - RCN journeyman lineman Maloni Niu (CQ) is placing, what in the fiber optic cable business is called, "strand" along a line of utility poles in San Mateo Thursday February 3, 2000. "Strand" is a support cable which eventually will be used to supporting a high speed fiber optic cable, installed by RCN which will compete with existing infrastructure. RCN is wiring its own cable network to compete in the local telephone, high speed Internet and cable television delivery business.Eugene H. Louie30291375SJM-FLYCAR-0826.xmltrue:biz:bizstaff:Google:whatsnew:bizbreaking:By Ethan Baron, ebaron@bayareanewsgroup.comThu, 25 Aug 2016 17:24:54 PDTThu, 25 Aug 2016 17:24:55 PDTTue, 25 Aug 2026 17:46:36 PDTThu, 25 Aug 2016 17:24:55 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 04:44:24 PDTFri, 26 Aug 2016 04:43:42 PDT3106falseBy Ethan Baron&#44; ebaron&#64;bayareanewsgroup&#46;com2016-08-25T17:24:54-07:0020160826T044424-07002016-08-25T17:26:24-07:0020160826T044342-07002016082508/25/20162026-08-25T17:46:36-07:001817YDouble-winged flying car on the way?Santa Cruz's Joby Aviation received a patent for a flying car that would take off and land vertically.Santa Cruz's Joby Aviation received a patent for a flying car that would take off and land vertically.<p>SANTA CRUZ -- A firm competing with two startups reportedly funded by Google co-founder Larry Page to roll out the world's first flying cars received a patent Thursday for a vehicle that could take off and land vertically from a driveway or parking lot.</p><p>The patent issued to Joby Aviation founder JoeBen Bevirt describes an aircraft that's piloted either by human or robot and does not require a runway.</p><p>"Just that difference points to the potential for large drones that carry people," said Stanford robotics expert Bryant Walker Smith. </p><p>Far out? Perhaps, but the idea has merit to some. </p><p>"The need is obviously there," said Roger Lanctot, associate director of Strategy Analytics. "The whole surface-based transportation network is completely overwhelmed globally. There isn't a place in the world that isn't completely overtaxed. The only way out is up."</p><p>With populations moving more and more into urban areas, and road infrastructure crumbling, aerial transportation options will become increasingly important in the U.S., said Cathy Roberson, head analyst at Logistics Trends & Insights. "Cities are just going to keep getting bigger and bigger, and traffic's going to keep getting worse and worse," Roberson said. </p><p>Flying cars appear to be a viable idea, Roberson said. "People laughed at Henry Ford when he produced the Model T ... and said it wouldn't go, and it did," she said. "Why not this? I could have used it the other day -- I sat in traffic for two hours." </p><p>To be sure, the awarding of the patent does not mean your next trip to Burning Man will be in a flying car. The same airspace and safety issues affecting drones in general would confront flying cars. The patent does not give a time frame for any product release.</p><p>Bevirt presented several possible designs for the vehicle, but focused on a biplane drone with four electric motors powering propellers. The patent noted that "runways may not always be available, or their use may be impractical."</p><p>Although Bevirt did not detail how the aircraft would be used, Joby Aviation is dedicated to creating "a new generation of electric personal aircraft" that will "revolutionize how we commute," according to company promotional material. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the patent.</p><p>Not so far from Joby's facility north of Santa Cruz, in Hollister to the southeast, two companies reportedly funded by Page, CEO of Google's parent company Alphabet, are testing their own versions of flying cars. Secrecy shrouds the operations of Zee-Aero and Kitty Hawk, so the battle to put the first viable flying car in the air is occurring largely unseen.</p><p>If cars do fly, said Jeremy Carlson, a senior analyst at IHS Automotive, the likeliest market for their manufacturers would be on-demand aerial transportation services. </p><p>"If there's one thing that we're learning a lot more of these days it's that mobility services can be a very big deal, and they can open up new business models, and they can open up transportation to a lot of new people. This one feels like it's a pretty small opportunity, given the massive transportation industry we have today."</p><p>Ride-hailing giant Uber, in fact, could become a player in flying-car services, Stanford's Smith said. "If there's any company that isn't going to confine itself to the ground, I'd say it's Uber," Smith said. </p><p>Flying cars would probably provide a more expensive transportation option than ground travel, given costs of aircraft and liability insurance, Carlson said. </p><p>While Joby's patent allows for versions of the aircraft with a human pilot, full autonomy would be the best system for a flying car, Smith said. "The experience of cars and the experience of general aviation paint a pretty frightening picture if even more people were getting up into the air and were being expected to actually fly," Smith said.</p><p>Among the many obstacles facing developers of electric flying cars is the challenge of managing airspace to prevent accidents, and producing batteries that won't catch fire or run out in mid-flight, Smith said. </p><p>"This is the Tesla battery problem writ large," he said. "If anyone has feelings of range anxiety in an electric car, they're going to have even more anxiety in a flying car because the consequences of battery failure are a lot more severe."</p><p>Contact Ethan Baron at 408-920-5011 or follow him at <a href="http://Twitter.com/ethanbaron" >Twitter.com/ethanbaron</a>.</p><a href="http://Twitter.com/ethanbaron">Twitter.com/ethanbaron</a>

A drawing from a patent granted Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016 to Joby Aviation of Santa Cruz, Calif. shows the design for an electric-powered flying car that could be human-piloted or fly as a drone.

A drawing from a patent granted Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016 to Joby Aviation of Santa Cruz, Calif. shows the design for an electric-powered flying car that could be human-piloted or fly as a drone.

U&#46;S&#46; Patent and Trademark Office49219685http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__sjm-flycar-0825-1~1.JPG6454322775849219688http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__sjm-flycar-0825-1~1_100.JPG100671077449219689http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__sjm-flycar-0825-1~1_200.JPG2001341240549219690http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__sjm-flycar-0825-1~1_300.JPG3002011437449219691http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__sjm-flycar-0825-1~1_400.JPG4002681667249219692http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__sjm-flycar-0825-1~1_500.JPG500335188632/businessdouble-winged-flying-car-waytrue568Double-winged flying car on the way?18http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_30291375/double-winged-flying-car-wayBusinessheader30291160imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__sjm-flycar-0825-2~1.JPGA drawing from a patent granted Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016 to Joby Aviation of Santa Cruz, Calif. shows the design for an electric-powered flying car that could be human-piloted or fly as a drone. U.S. Patent and Trademark Officeposition230291159imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0825/20160825__sjm-flycar-0825-1~1.JPG
A drawing from a patent granted Thursday, Aug. 25, 2016 to Joby Aviation of Santa Cruz, Calif. shows the design for an electric-powered flying car that could be human-piloted or fly as a drone.U.S. Patent and Trademark Office30267788http://www.siliconbeat.com/?ptrueblogsiliconbeat http://www.siliconbeat.com/?p=111927 p_2df7e42a-0c74-4e9f-a635-88fdabf7dad8.xml<i></i>Fri, 19 Aug 2016 11:46:43 PDTThu, 18 Aug 2016 23:46:40 PDTWed, 19 Aug 2026 11:46:40 PDTThu, 18 Aug 2016 23:46:40 PDTThu, 18 Aug 2016 23:46:40 PDTFri, 19 Aug 2016 13:00:18 PDTFri, 19 Aug 2016 13:00:15 PDT3100false2016-08-19T11:46:43-07:0020160819T130018-07002016-08-19T11:48:25-07:0020160819T130015-07002016081908/19/20162026-08-19T11:46:40-07:0098YOracle funding secretive anti-Google group: reportOracle has proudly declared that it is one of the funders of the Google Transparency Project, a shadowy effort by a secretive group that has issued reports highly critical of Google's influence in government.Oracle has proudly declared that it is one of the funders of the Google Transparency Project, a shadowy effort by a secretive group that has issued reports highly critical of Google's influence in government.<p>Oracle, it appears, has bought a share in an attack dog to maul Silicon Valley rival Google.</p><p>Redwood City's Oracle has proudly declared that it is one of the funders of the Google Transparency Project, a shadowy effort by a secretive group that has issued reports highly critical of Google's influence in government.</p><p>The project is run by Campaign for Accountability, which does not reveal its funders and has endeavored to keep invisible its connection to New Venture Fund, a deep-pocketed public interest group.</p><p>New Venture Fund is spinning off Campaign for Accountability into a new organization called Hopewell Fund, which is where the story takes an <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/07/19/googles-secretive-and-deep-pocketed-foe-heavily-funded-by-gates-hewlett-foundations/" >odd turn</a>: Hopewell director Michael Slaby, a high-profile digital strategist, runs a firm that has created an election-campaign digital platform funded by Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt, raising the question of why the head of Google's parent company has financial ties to a key player in a group bent on diminishing Google.</p><p>Now, Fortune has <a href="http://fortune.com/2016/08/19/google-transparency-project-2/" >revealed </a>that Oracle has been funding the Google Transparency Project, and wants to shout that out to the world. "Oracle is absolutely a contributor . . . to the Transparency Project," Oracle senior vice-president Ken Glueck told the magazine. "This is important information for the public to know."</p><p>The Fortune article suggested that Oracle, which is fighting to overturn its loss to Google in a $9 billion copyright suit it filed against the search giant, is one of many funders. Microsoft has said it doesn't help pay for the project. Yelp, part of a separate <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3fae98a4-47ca-11e4-be7b-00144feab7de" >campaign </a>attacking Google's practices in the European Union, told SiliconBeat it is not funding the Campaign for Accountability or its parent organizations.</p><p><em>Photo: Two men walk past a building on the Google campus in Mountain View. (AP/Jeff Chiu)</em></p><p>The post <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/19/oracle-funding-secretive-anti-google-group-report/" >Oracle funding secretive anti-Google group: report</a> appeared first on <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com" >SiliconBeat</a>.</p><a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/07/19/googles-secretive-and-deep-pocketed-foe-heavily-funded-by-gates-hewlett-foundations/">odd turn</a><a href="http://fortune.com/2016/08/19/google-transparency-project-2/">revealed </a><a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3fae98a4-47ca-11e4-be7b-00144feab7de">campaign </a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/19/oracle-funding-secretive-anti-google-group-report/">Oracle funding secretive anti-Google group: report</a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.siliconbeat.com">SiliconBeat</a>

49141083http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0819/20160819__p_2df7e42a-0c74-4e9f-a635-88fdabf7dad8~l~soriginal~ph.jpg4803233714449141086http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0819/20160819__p_2df7e42a-0c74-4e9f-a635-88fdabf7dad8~l~soriginal~ph_100.jpg10067209549141087http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0819/20160819__p_2df7e42a-0c74-4e9f-a635-88fdabf7dad8~l~soriginal~ph_200.jpg200135568449141088http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0819/20160819__p_2df7e42a-0c74-4e9f-a635-88fdabf7dad8~l~soriginal~ph_300.jpg3002021108649141089http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0819/20160819__p_2df7e42a-0c74-4e9f-a635-88fdabf7dad8~l~soriginal~ph_400.jpg400269174281/businessoracle-funding-secretive-anti-google-group-reporttrue568Oracle funding secretive anti-Google group: report9http://www.siliconbeat.com/2016/08/19/oracle-funding-secretive-anti-google-group-report/Businessheader30267792imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0819/20160819__p_2df7e42a-0c74-4e9f-a635-88fdabf7dad8~l~soriginal~ph.jpg30260647SJM-TECHFILES-0821.xmltrue:biz:bizstaff:apple:driv:testdrive:google:greencars:ptech:svcolumns:sv2020news:wolverton:whatsnew:bizbreaking: :whatsnew:twolverton@mercurynews.comBy Troy Wolverton, twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.comWed, 17 Aug 2016 20:51:31 PDTWed, 17 Aug 2016 20:51:33 PDTMon, 17 Aug 2026 20:51:27 PDTWed, 17 Aug 2016 20:51:33 PDTThu, 18 Aug 2016 18:06:18 PDTThu, 18 Aug 2016 18:05:49 PDT3098falseBy Troy Wolverton&#44; twolverton&#64;bayareanewsgroup&#46;com2016-08-17T20:51:31-07:0020160818T180618-07002016-08-17T20:52:08-07:0020160818T180549-07002016081708/17/20162026-08-17T20:51:27-07:002423YPlug-in hybrids have come a long way in a few short yearsChevrolet's Volt and Ford's Fusion Energi lead a second generation of plug-in hybrid vehicles that are starting to trickle into showrooms and offer consumers better efficiency, more affordable prices and more choice than before.Chevrolet's Volt and Ford's Fusion Energi lead a second generation of plug-in hybrid vehicles that are starting to trickle into showrooms and offer consumers better efficiency, more affordable prices and more choice than before.<p>Even in these days of cheap gasoline, there's still something liberating about not filling up.</p><p>I got a taste of that joy recently when I test drove a pair of brand-new cars: The 2017 Ford Fusion Energi and the 2017 Chevrolet Volt. I drove each for more than a week, running errands, going to work, and driving to Fremont to catch BART. I not only didn't have to visit a gas station, I barely used any gas at all in either one.</p><p>I loved the Volt, but enjoyed driving both. They were fun cars for more reasons than just saving gas.</p><p>Both the Volt and Fusion Energi are plug-in hybrids, a class of car that promises some of the same environmental bona fides as full-electric cars without their usually limited overall range. The two vehicles are part of a new wave of plug-ins that will be rolling into showrooms over the next year.</p><p>Plug-in hybrid vehicles are kind of a cross between a more traditional hybrid car like Toyota's Prius and an electric vehicle like Nissan's Leaf. They include both an electric motor and a gasoline engine, but they have larger battery packs than regular hybrids, which allows them to operate at times like full electric vehicles. As they would with other electric vehicles, users have to recharge the batteries by plugging them into a wall outlet or recharging station.</p><p>The electric-only range for a plug-in hybrid is typically far less than that of an all-electric car. But their gasoline engines usually give them a total range that significantly exceeds electric vehicles and, in some cases, can better a typical gasoline-powered vehicle.</p><p>Regulators and car companies are promoting plug-ins as a way to save on gas and cut carbon emissions. Federal and state governments have given drivers extra inducements to buy them. They qualify for California's carpool lane stickers, for example, and purchasers are eligible for state and federal tax credits of up to $9,000 combined.</p><p>Plug-in vehicles aren't exactly new. The first Volt debuted in late 2010, and Toyota and Ford both released their first production plug-in hybrids in 2012.</p><p>But like other first-generation products, those first plug-ins weren't polished. They drew criticism for being pricey, for having very limited electric-only ranges, and for having gas engines that weren't super efficient. And consumers only had a handful from which to choose.</p><p>The next generation of plug-in hybrids will address many of these concerns. Prices have come down. Electric-only ranges have gone up on some vehicles, as has their gasoline engines' efficiency. And consumers will soon have a whole lot of choices, with models coming or already in showrooms from companies including Audi, BMW, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Volvo.</p><p>Two of the first of that new generation, the Volt and the Fusion Energi, represent two distinct takes on plug-in technology and how such vehicles should look and feel.</p><p>While the Fusion Energi has a standard plug-in hybrid system in which both its electric motor and gasoline engine can power the wheels, the Volt's system is unusual. The car is always powered by its electric motor and will generally run down its batteries completely before switching over to its gasoline engine. And the gas engine doesn't power the wheels; instead it generates electricity for the Volt's electric motor.</p><p>The Volt is designed to maximize its electric range. Its large battery pack, which stores more than twice as much electricity as that in the Fusion Energi, is located in the center of the car, where the transmission would be in a rear-wheel drive vehicle. That placement means that you can't seat more than four full-sized adults in the car, because the batteries take up much of what would be the middle seat in the back. So, while it's a great commuting car, it would be fairly cramped for family trips.</p><p>Chevy debuted this new generation of Volt in a limited way last year, then expanded its distribution with this year's model. Compared with previous versions, the newer Volts are lighter and have a smaller gas engine. The result is much improved efficiency and range. The new Volt will go 53 miles on battery power alone, up from 38 miles previously, according to EPA estimates. And it gets 42 miles to the gallon when it's running on gas, up from around 37 in the prior models. Because of its improved efficiency, its total range is now 420 miles, compared to 380 in the previous generation.</p><p>That extended electric range is amazing. Despite driving my test vehicle all over the South Bay for more than a week and forgetting at times to recharge it at night, I still only ended up using about a quarter of a gallon of gas while I had it. And while it's known for its efficiency, the Volt was zippy and fun to drive.</p><p>Compared to the Volt, the Fusion Energi was larger and felt more like a standard family sedan. It could comfortably fit five people inside, albeit with one big trade off -- trunk space. The car's battery pack is placed right behind its rear site and takes up a large portion of what would be the trunk. Indeed, the Fusion Energi has less trunk space than the smaller Volt and about half that of the all-gas powered Fusion.</p><p>Ford has optimized the car for total range. With its battery all charged and its 14 gallon gas tank full, it will go about 610 miles. That's up about 60 miles from last year's model and is great if you're planning on taking it on long trips.</p><p>But the car comes up short when it comes to electric range. The EPA estimates it will go about 22 miles on battery power. That's up two miles from the prior Fusion Energi, but still a far cry from the Volt. I didn't drive the Fusion Energi all that much, but I found it wasn't difficult in everyday driving to use up all the juice in its batteries.</p><p>Both cars have attractions beyond their fuel efficiency. Both offer broad selections of semiautonomous features as options, including adaptive cruise control and automated lane keeping. Both have new infotainment systems that support Apple's CarPlay and Android Auto. And both have built-in cellular connections that allow users to remotely start them and unlock their doors.</p><p>Such features help make both cars a pleasure to use. Both cars show how plug-in vehicles have now matured to the point that you don't have to sacrifice much to get a much greener car.</p><p>Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285 or <a href="mailto:twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.com" >twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.com</a>. Follow him at <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton" >www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton</a> or <a href="http://Twitter.com/troywolv" >Twitter.com/troywolv</a>.</p><p>Chevrolet Volt<br></p><p>What: Extended range electric (plug-in hybrid) sedan<br>Range: 53 miles on battery pack; 420 miles total<br>Mileage: 106 miles per gallon equivalent (electricity alone); 42 miles per gallon (gas alone)<br>Technology features and options: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support; automatic braking; adaptive cruise control; assisted parking; automated lane-keeping; built-in 4G LTE radio that provides Wi-Fi hotspot capability with optional subscription; smartphone app allows remote start, charge scheduling and unlocking.<br>Price: Base model, $34,095. As tested: $39,450. Doesn't include delivery charges, taxes, license and other fees.<br></p><p>Chevrolet, Environmental Protection Agency<br><br></p><p>Ford Fusion Energi<br></p><p>What: Plug-in hybrid sedan<br>Range: 21 miles on battery pack; 610 miles total<br>Mileage: 97 miles per gallon (combined electric and gas); 42 miles per gallon (gas alone)<br>Technology features and options: Apple CarPlay and Android Auto support; Sync 3 infotainment system; automatic braking; advanced adaptive cruise control; assisted parking; automated lane-keeping; smartphone app allows remote start, charge scheduling and unlocking<br>Price: Base model, $31,120. As tested: $39,120. Doesn't include delivery charges, taxes, license and other fees.<br></p><p>Ford, Environmental Protection Agency</p><a href="mailto:twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.com">twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.com</a><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton">www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton</a><a href="http://Twitter.com/troywolv">Twitter.com/troywolv</a>

Troy Wolverton test drives a 2017 Chevy Volt, the second generation of GM's mainstream electric vehicle, for his Tech Files column, Tuesday afternoon, July 26, 2016, in San Jose, Calif.

Troy Wolverton, Mercury News technology columnist, uses the parking assist to back into a parking spot in a 2017 Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid Platinum model in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, July 13, 2016. Wolverton controlled the brake and accelerator but not the steering wheel.

Nhat V&#46; Meyer&#47;Bay Area News Group49118816http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0817/20160817__sjm-techfiles-0816-3~1.JPG64542613572249118819http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0817/20160817__sjm-techfiles-0816-3~1_100.JPG100661056549118820http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0817/20160817__sjm-techfiles-0816-3~1_200.JPG2001321542449118821http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0817/20160817__sjm-techfiles-0816-3~1_300.JPG3001982251449118822http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0817/20160817__sjm-techfiles-0816-3~1_400.JPG4002643090749118823http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0817/20160817__sjm-techfiles-0816-3~1_500.JPG500330415412/troy-wolvertonplug-hybrids-have-come-long-way-few-shorttrue568Plug-in hybrids have come a long way in a few short years24http://www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton/ci_30260647/plug-hybrids-have-come-long-way-few-shortBusinessTechnologyConsumer-electronicsheader30261410freeform<div class="ndn_embed" data-config-widget-id="2" style="width:654px;height:368px" data-config-type="VideoPlayer/Single" data-config-tracking-group="90757" data-config-playlist-id="18882" data-config-video-id="31287575" data-config-site-section="mercury2300_nws_biz_sec"> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push(['embed']);</script>position230261588imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0817/20160817__sjm-techfiles-0816-4~1.JPG
Troy Wolverton test drives a 2017 Chevy Volt, the second generation of GM's mainstream electric vehicle, for his Tech Files column, Tuesday afternoon, July 26, 2016, in San Jose, Calif. Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Groupposition430261587imagehttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0817/20160817__sjm-techfiles-0816-3~1.JPG
Troy Wolverton, Mercury News technology columnist, uses the parking assist to back into a parking spot in a 2017 Ford Fusion Energi plug-in hybrid Platinum model in San Jose, Calif., on Wednesday, July 13, 2016. Wolverton controlled the brake and accelerator but not the steering wheel. Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Groupfooter30157236freeform<div class="ndn_embed" data-config-widget-id="2" style="width:654px;height:368px" data-config-type="VideoPlayer/Single" data-config-tracking-group="90757" data-config-playlist-id="18873" data-config-video-id="31179388" data-config-site-section="eastbaytimes_hom_non_fro"> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push(['embed']);</script>30254829SJM-TECHFILES-0817.xmltrue:biz:bizstaff:apple:Facebook:Google:microsoft:ptech:svcolumns:svwireless:sv2020news:wolverton:whatsnew:bizbreaking: :whatsnew:twolverton@mercurynews.comBy Troy Wolverton, twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.comTue, 16 Aug 2016 16:48:35 PDTTue, 16 Aug 2016 16:48:38 PDTSun, 16 Aug 2026 17:29:25 PDTTue, 16 Aug 2016 16:48:38 PDTWed, 17 Aug 2016 07:52:23 PDTWed, 17 Aug 2016 07:50:55 PDT3097falseBy Troy Wolverton&#44; twolverton&#64;bayareanewsgroup&#46;com2016-08-16T16:48:35-07:0020160817T075223-07002016-08-16T16:50:22-07:0020160817T075055-07002016081608/16/20162026-08-16T17:29:25-07:001817YGoogle Duo video chat app: How it compares to FaceTimeGoogle debuted its Duo video calling app Tuesday with features that resemble Apple's FaceTime.Google debuted its Duo video calling app Tuesday with features that resemble Apple's FaceTime.<p>Six years after Apple launched its video calling service, Google finally has an answer for FaceTime.</p><p>On Tuesday, the search giant released Duo, its new video calling app, and I gave it a test run. Google designed Duo to be like FaceTime -- easy to use. As with Apple's app, users can simply tap on a friend's name from their address book and connect.</p><p>"Video calling is the next best thing to being with someone in person, but too often it can be a frustrating or complicated experience," Justin Uberti, a principal software engineer, wrote on Google's company blog site. "Duo takes the complexity out of video calling, so that you can be together in the moment wherever you are."</p><p>Duo has one big advantage over FaceTime -- it allows Android users to place video calls to iPhone owners and vice versa. FaceTime only works on Apple devices.</p><p>Google also gave Duo a cool feature that FaceTime lacks. Dubbed Knock Knock, it offers a kind of preview of the video call. Knock Knock allows the recipient of a call to see a live view of the person placing the call to get a sense not only of who is calling but why.</p><p>And Duo has a simpler initial view than FaceTime. Where FaceTime's home screen offers a list of contacts users have recently called, Duo show users a view of themselves and a big "video call" button. If users tap on that button, they'll see a list of friends who they can call on the app.</p><p>If they've placed calls recently, they'll also see thumbnail pictures of the friends they've contacted on the home screen. Those pictures act as buttons that allow them to make a quick follow-up video call.</p><p>But in general, the app works much like FaceTime. Like Apple's app, it's only used for calling; users can't send text messages through it. As with FaceTime interactions, Duo encrypts calls, so users don't have to worry about someone spying on their conversations. And as with FaceTime, Duo automatically identifies people in users' address books who can be reached through the app.</p><p>On Tuesday, I did a quick test of Duo, which Google announced in May at its annual developer conference. It worked mostly as advertised. My wife was able to easily place a call from her iPhone to mine using the app. I was able to return her call quickly by simply tapping on a thumbnail picture button on the Duo home screen.</p><p>The video was generally smooth, although there was a hiccup in it. The app is supposed to be able to keep a video call going even if your phone switches from Wi-Fi to a cellular network. But while talking with my daughter, the video of me cut out when I turned off my Wi-Fi radio. I was able to see her, but she could only hear me. My video resumed when I turned my Wi-Fi radio back on.</p><p>Google is no stranger to video calling. Users of Google Talk could place video calls on their PCs eight years ago. Google Hangouts, which the company launched three years ago, allows users to connect on PCs and mobile devices and can be used for video conferences involving multiple people.</p><p>And users of Google's Android operating system have numerous choices for video calling apps, including Skype, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat. Cell providers Verizon and T-Mobile also offer video calling features for Android phones.</p><p>But until now, Android users haven't had something as easy and ubiquitous to use for video chats as FaceTime. While Hangouts comes preinstalled on most devices, it's a much more complicated app that can be difficult to use.</p><p>With Skype, Facebook and other apps, users can typically only place video calls to people who are using the same app. And in some cases users have to know a person's often idiosyncratic logon name to connect.</p><p>And the cellphone video services generally allow users to place video calls only to other users who have certain phones that are connected to the same cellular network.</p><p>While Duo may be aimed at FaceTime, I'm not convinced it's going to convince iPhone users to switch to Android. But if it gets enough of a following, it could make it easier for iPhone users to at least consider making the move.</p><p>Still, FaceTime, which debuted with Apple's iPhone 4 back in 2010, retains some advantages over Duo. Apple offers it for Mac computers, while Duo isn't available for the Mac or Windows PCs. FaceTime allows users to place audio-only calls, while Duo is focused on video ones. And FaceTime users can connect to people even if they don't know their phone number; FaceTime also recognizes their email address.</p><p>Duo comes as chat apps in general are becoming a major battleground among tech firms. In addition to allowing users to make video calls and send text messages, a new generation of messaging apps is allowing users to do everything from make hotel reservations to order pizza. Such apps are also building in "bots," automated services that can answer questions or perform other features.</p><p>WeChat, which offers users a collection of such features, has become popular in its native China. American technology companies are trying to get up to speed. Google has a new advanced text messaging app called Allo in the works that it announced at the same time as Duo. Earlier this year, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple each announced upgrades that will bring bots and other advanced features to their messaging apps.</p><p>Chat bots and other advanced messaging features pose a potential threat to Android and Apple's iOS that's similar to what Microsoft's Windows faced from web browsers. Because users can potentially accomplish most of their everyday tasks within one particular app, it wouldn't matter as much which phone they were using, what operating system it was running or which other apps are available for it.</p><p>Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285 or <a href="mailto:twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.com" >twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.com</a>. Follow him at <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton" >www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton</a> or <a href="http://Twitter.com/troywolv" >Twitter.com/troywolv</a>.</p><a href="mailto:twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.com">twolverton@bayareanewsgroup.com</a><a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton">www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton</a><a href="http://Twitter.com/troywolv">Twitter.com/troywolv</a>/troy-wolvertongoogle-duo-video-chat-app-compare-facetimetrue568Google Duo video chat app: How it compares to FaceTime18http://www.mercurynews.com/troy-wolverton/ci_30254829/google-duo-video-chat-app-compare-facetimeBusinessTechnologyConsumer-electronicsheader30252407freeform<div class="ndn_embed" data-config-widget-id="2" style="width:600px;height:338px" data-config-type="VideoPlayer/Single" data-config-tracking-group="90757" data-config-playlist-id="13434" data-config-video-id="31275564" data-config-site-section="eastbaytimes_hom_non_fro"> </div> <script type="text/javascript">var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push(['embed']);</script>